Its Meant to Be
by always-the-tone-of-surprise
Summary: Takes place right after Aliyah, but I'm pretending the whole Somalia thing never happened. Ziva sneaks into NCIS to get her stuff back...TIVA! slight MCABBY! SPOILERS!
1. Choked

Disclaimer: Sadly I do not own any of the characters in this story :( BUT I created the idea for this story, so unless you want to continue this plot line for whatever reason (which you should definitely PM me asking to do so!) you should not under any circumstances be copying (not even you change it a tad) this plot!

Setting: You'll figure it out, but the story is set after Tony and Gibbs leave Ziva in Tel Aviv. I'm just going to pretend that the whole Ziva being beat up in Somalia never happened! :)

R&R!!

————————————————————————————————————

Ziva David swallowed and closed her eyes. She knew what had to be done. Opening her eyes she raised her NCIS issue cell phone to eye level and scrolled down her contacts to Gibbs' name. She breathed in slowly and let it out. Clicking the little green phone button when she'd selected his work number, she raised the cell to her ear. It rang. And rang. And rang. And rang. Ziva was gathering hope with each ring, when a voice came through the earpiece. "This is Special Agent Gibbs' cell phone. He's not here right now, so please leave a message." Ziva's heart had stopped beating and she'd choked up. It was Tony's voice. A tear ran down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away. _He killed Michael! Stop missing him! _She told herself. It didn't help. Ever since Tony and Gibbs had flown away on that fighter jet back to D.C., she couldn't help but constantly think about Tony. Ziva had never admitted to herself that she liked Tony. Liked him more than a friend. But after three hours on the fighter jet she, herself had taken back on to D.C. to bring back all of her belongings, Ziva had finally realized this and grew quite ashamed of herself. How had she fallen for her partner, well her previous partner, and for the man who'd killed the man she'd loved? Easy. After four years working with him, it was a tad obvious how much they liked each other. What with all the constant, subconscious flirting and all! So when she heard Tony's voice on the phone it cut her raw heart open again.

Since she'd reached Gibbs' voice mail (knowing that if anyone had been at NCIS at the time, they would have picked up the phone and taken a message), which had been her goal all along, she hung up the phone without uttering a word. Ziva then opened her car door and stepped out, pulling a single cardboard box out with her. She walked up the walkway to the front doors of NCIS. After passing through security and receiving a guest badge, she pushed the normal elevator button without thinking. Placing the box on the floor, Ziva raised her hands to her face and vigorously rubbed her eyes. When the elevator dinged she bent down and picked up the box again, and then stood back up as the doors opened. She took another deep breath and walked through the doors. Her throat tightened as the bullpen came into view.


	2. Seeing

It was Friday morning and Tony had just exited the elevator and was walking toward the bullpen when he saw Gibbs and McGee were standing in front of Ziva's desk. McGee looked very sad and Gibbs, well he looked like he always does, except he was without his ever-present coffee. A quick glance at Gibbs' desk revealed two cups of joe, which did strike Tony a little odd because it was rare even for Gibbs to had two cups of coffee at, Tony checked his watch, 7:51 in the morning. Tony had come to the office fairly early this morning because he hadn't been able to sleep. Ziva had been in his thoughts constantly ever since Gibbs and himself had come home from Tel Aviv without her.

Tony finally joined his boss and other partner at Ziva's old desk and noticed that all of her stuff had already been cleared off. Gibbs and Tony had gotten home late two nights ago and yesterday the three men had had a unspoken agreement to leave Ziva's stuff as it was for at least a while. So it very odd and hurt him very much that her belongs, the stuff that without made the squad room feel like it was missing a very important piece, had been removed. Tony proceeded to punch the cubical wall next to her desk causing McGee to look at him for the first time. Without looking up Gibbs said, "It wasn't one of us DiNozzo."

By then McGee had returned to his gaze to Ziva's fairly empty desk. Tony followed the gaze of the other two men down to where Ziva's gun and badge lay. Tony squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again slowly to make sure he wasn't seeing things. But when Tony saw that the gun and badge were still there, he angrily pulled a pair of latex gloves from his gear bag, and threw it forcefully behind his desk. He proceeded to snap the gloves on his hands and told McGee to take a picture of the heartbreaking scene. McGee looked at Tony questionably but went over to his desk anyway. When McGee finally produced the camera, Tony snapped at him to hurry up. Blinking, annoyed, McGee went back to his former partner's desk and took a couple pictures of the scene that lay before them. When he was finished Tony grabbed Ziva's gun and badge and confirmed to the other two that they did indeed belong to a Liaison Officer Ziva David of NCIS.

During this time, unseen by both McGee and Tony, Gibbs had rounded his desk and also put on a pair of gloves. The two men did realize what Gibbs had done when he was already back a Ziva's desk and said, "DiNozzo," with his hand out. Tony reluctantly handed over the last pieces of Ziva that he had. Well at least that he knew of.

"Boss—," Tony said as Gibbs inspected the gun.

"I know DiNozzo. I know."

Four hours of paperwork that both Tony and McGee couldn't concentrate on, later, Abby rushed over to the bullpen. "Gibbs! Ziva's badge and gun did have fingerprints on them!" she proclaimed.

"Yeah, Abby, I kinda guessed that," Gibbs said looking up and taking his glasses, wait glasses?!!, off. "And…"

Abby excitedly said, "They belong to her!"

"Abs, why are you so excited? Someone removed all of her stuff and put it God knows where!" Tony snapped at her.

"Be-cauuuuuse Tony! Those fingerprints are recent and there were no one else's on either of them! With meaaans, that Ziva was here last night! Well, unless someone wore gloves and is trying to make us think Ziva was here, when really they have her held captive somewhere and their—"

"Abby!" McGee said snapping her out of her rambling.

"Sorry, Gibbs! Wait! You don't think that's what happened do you?!" Abby said looking scared.

"Its possible Abs, but pretty unlikely. Ziva can take care of herself." Gibbs said solemnly.

Tony was finally catching on to what Abby had first said. "So wait, Abs. You're saying Ziva was probably here last night and took her stuff with her? And she left her gun and badge. Annnnd, that she's probably still here in D.C.?!"

Abby nodded with a smile. "McGee! Pull up the security camera footage from last night. Tony, check with the security workers working last night and see if Ziva did indeed come here. And check all of the D.C. flights. See how she got here and if she left." Gibbs was really hoping Ziva was still in D.C., he wanted her to come back to the team, even it had only been a day without her.

McGee and Tony rushed to their desks and immediately got to work. Pretty soon Tony was on the phone talking to the security workers from the night before. He was on the phone maybe 20 seconds when he hung up and confirmed that Ziva had been there. Tony quickly began checking the entering flights in D.C. from the day before, looking for one that came from Tel Aviv. He soon found it and saw that only three people had been on the plane. Two pilots and Ziva. "Boss! She arrived in D.C. yesterday at 1:38 pm. It was just her and two pilots."

Gibbs nodded and then McGee finally said, "Got it! Here's last night's footage from right after Tony left at 11:56 pm. Jeez, Tony, you were here late!"

McGee started to fast-forward when Tony said, "The security workers said she entered at," he looked at his notepad, "1:43 am, so set it to play at 1:35. Let's see what happened beforehand. Maybe nothing. Maybe something."

When McGee finally got it to 1:35 am, he hit play. The camera showed the bullpen but there was no activity. After standing for three minutes, Tony pulled over his desk chair and McGee did the same. Abby, who had been sitting on McGee's desk while he'd been working, now rolled over a desk chair from the tiny cubical next to Tim's desk. Gibbs remained standing. After another three minutes of nothing happening the team was growing bored. Then, all of a sudden Gibbs' phone on the camera rang and the three adults sitting, jumped. Gibbs chuckled softly to himself at their reaction. Though, when the person calling didn't leave a message, Gibbs grew a tad suspicious. After another four minutes of nothing the elevator on the screen dinged and everyone became much more focused. A couple seconds later, Ziva entered the camera's view. The first thing she did was she looked at the security camera and gave a weak smile. Tony's heart dropped. It had only been two days since he last day her and already he missed her so much that it scared him. Tony felt as if a huge part of him was missing.


	3. Letters

Ziva walked over to her desk and placed the cardboard box on the floor next to it. With a heavy sigh, she began by clearing the top of her desk of her belongings. This only took a short while as most of the little amount of stuff she had there, was inside her desk, not on top of it. Next, the dark haired girl gathered all of her paperwork (thankfully she'd finished it all) and piled it on the right hand edge of her desk (the side closest to Gibbs' desk). Sadly, Ziva gathered her NCIS issue office supplies and piled it on top of the paperwork. While she was putting her tape dispenser on the pile, her stapler accidentally fell over. On the bottom of it was a small yellow Post-it Note. A smirk slowly played across her mouth as she realized what it was.

For the past few months Tony and Ziva had been hiding small yellow Post-it Notes that said random things, under each other's office supplies. Sometimes the messages were quotes, sometimes phrases, sometimes they were bets, and sometimes they even repeated what had been said in the office that day. She peeled the most recent note off of her stapler and shone her desk lamp on it. It read:

We need to talk.

A puzzled expression overtook her face and she held up then note and raised her eyebrow at the security camera. _What did Tony mean?_ She thought. After a few seconds she finally looked away and tucked the note into her pocket, she'd have to contemplate it later.

Moving on to the bottom drawers on either side of her desk she found a few old letters, some spare change, a photograph of her and her father, a Hebrew book, a yo-yo (from Tony), a spare gun holder, a pair of sock, a few dead pens, an American Idioms Guide For Dummies book, and many pieces of paper with a variety of things on them. Some had been extra copies of pages from case reports; a couple were notes that Tony and her had thrown back and forth pretending that it was just a ball of paper. Some were actually quite interesting…

**So Z, what you doing this weekend?**

_Going to the shooting range and then the gym. You? Hot date?_

**Ooh yeah! She's gorgeous, brunette, early-thirties. Haven't asked her yet, but I know she'll say yes.**

_Why exactly are you telling me this?_

**Who knows **** Hey, see and good movies recently?**

_Tony, I believe you have forgotten that I do not own a TV._

**Ahh, yes, the crazy ninja chick is TVless…hmmm we should fix that!**

_We?_

**Oh yeah! I'm a great TV shopper! I know exactly which own would be best for you!**

_Oh really?! Then why do I feel like McGee would be better to take on this search?_

**Well look at him! Furiously typing like that! He's obviously to stressed out! And plus! I bet he already has plans with Abs!**

_Haha true! Those two have been inseparable lately!_

**And plus, you obviously haven't been TV shopping with me!**

_Fine, Tony, you can go shopping for a TV with me._

**YES! Okay, so how about this weekend?!**

_?? I thought you had a hot date!_

**I do…**

_Well if this will not interfere…then sure. This weekend it is! When?_

**How about Saturday?**

_Saturday? Prime hook-up day/night?! Wow! I did not know that this was that important!_

**Spending time with my partner ****is**** important!**

_Well then, Saturday it is!_

Ziva recalled remembering seeing Tony smirk as he read the last sentence. She also remembered that Tony never ended going on that date…wait! Ziva quickly reread the note and realized that Tony's date clues all fit. He'd been referring to _her_! And he had been right, she had said yes…Wow. She'd gone on a date with Tony and not even known it.

As she had been reading those notes she'd ended up kneeling, sitting on her heels. Some of the notes made her laugh out loud and others made her furious, but when she'd finished reading them she wished that there were still hundreds left to read. Ziva gently added the notes to the slowly growing pile in her cardboard box. Finishing up her bottom drawers, she moved up a drawer on either side and opened those. She found a bottle of Advil, a few bags of tea, three packages of gum, a pile of gum wrappers, a pink eraser, a photo of the team (including Gibbs, McGee, Tony, Abby, Ducky, Palmer, herself, and even Jenny), a collection of printed out emails that were all in Hebrew, and lastly the letter she'd started to write to her father a few months ago. She'd only written one sentence and it read, "I am sorry for the things I have done." The opposite drawer held a few spiral notebooks, a pair of NCIS handcuffs, hand sanitizer, a toothbrush, toothpaste, empty file folders, a package of tissues, two spare knives, deodorant, a few pencils, and even more various pieces of paper. During the day at the office, Ziva would keep her weapons in this drawer.

After transferring all of the things found in those two drawers, besides the extra case report pages, the file folders, and the handcuffs, into the cardboard box, Ziva pulled back her office chair. With a sigh, the liaison officer took a seat. She turned on her computer and while waiting for it to power up she pulled a thumb drive out of her pocket and connected it to the computer. Finally her computer desktop appeared and Ziva moved some important documents to the drive. Pausing, she turned to the security camera and smiled weakly, "Just personal stuff, not agency related." Ziva didn't want Gibbs to think she was stealing vital information that could be used against NCIS.

Some time later, Ziva finished the task and glanced at her watch. Apparently it was 2:51 a.m. and she obviously wasn't going to get much sleep tonight. Ziva disconnected the thumb drive from her computer and tossed it half-heartedly into the cardboard box. She then shut down her computer and pulled four envelopes out of the box, which sat next to her desk.

She rose from her chair and walked around to desk over to Gibbs'. She then proceeded to open the drawer where he kept his gun and badge during the day and place two envelopes, which read "Gibbs" and "Abby and Ducky," in the drawer before carefully shutting it.

She sighed before continuing on to McGee's corner of the squad room. Opening his desk's middle drawer, Ziva delicately laid his envelope in a noticeable spot, and shut it again.

Leaning against McGee's desk, Ziva squeezed her eyes tightly shut. She was about to do something extremely hard, but she knew she had to. She slowly breathed in and attempted to hold her breath. But the air quickly whooshed out of her and her shoulders slumped. _Okay. You can do this._ She told her self before heading over to her part—former partner's desk. Ziva squatted by Tony's shelf knowing exactly where his hidden stash of GSM magazines was. Finding the copy that she and Tony had talked about right after she'd joined NCIS, Ziva filled to page 57 rolling her eyes as she remember how Tony had wanted to try it out on her. **(A/N: Silver Wars) **She tucked the envelope between the two pages and put the magazine back where she'd found it.

Having finished her task, Ziva returned to her desk and carefully placed her NCIS badge and gun in the middle of it. Her hand lingered on her badge for a couple seconds, as she traced the letters of _Mossad Liaison Officer _with her finger. Then, Ziva picked up the somewhat filled box and began to exit the squad room, but before reaching the elevator, she turned back to the security camera and slightly nodded to it with a small, sad smile on her face. Ziva looked around the squad room on last time and then pushed the elevator button. The doors opened right away, since no one else had used it since she'd reached the floor an hour and a half beforehand. She enter the elevator and pushed the down, watching the doors to her home for the past three years slowly close, as a single tear trailed down her cheek.


End file.
